


How to create a Mountain and a Hound

by KungfuChicken



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6543637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KungfuChicken/pseuds/KungfuChicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In my headcanon the Clegane women look somewhat like Mayim Bialik. That's why I named the sister Amy, after the feisty Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler. And because I like the name and think it fits well into ASOIAF of course.</p></blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“I am a squire, I don’t play with dolls!” had been Gregors verdict.  
Then he had thrown the little toy knight into a corner of his room and strode off. But Sandor was no squire, he was only seven. It was still fine for him to play with dolls. At least as long as the dolls looked like knights. And what a fine knight this doll was! He could move his limbs! It was almost as if this small wooden puppet had really come to life, Sandor could not stop looking at it. Surely it did not matter if he borrowed Gregors knight just a little bit? Gregor was twelve and too old to still play with dolls, he had said so himself. Sandor should have known better. Even long after his burns had healed as good as they ever would, the injustice of it still made his eyes sting with angry tears. 

Mother had always warned him and his sister Amy to stay away from Gregor or his things because Gregor had a temper and was much stronger and bigger than them. Gregor could get awfully angry and mean all of a sudden and no one ever knew why. 

Two years ago Gregor had left for Casterly Rock to become a squire of Tywin Lannister. Father had been very proud. And Sandor had envied his brother and wished he were ten, so he could become a squire too and then a knight, because knights were noble and strong heroes. He wanted to be one of them so very badly!

Gregor was away and life at Clegane Keep was quiet. But then a fever came. Mother was fine one day and then the next she was gone. Father sent a raven to Casterly Rock for Gregor to come home and mourn his mother with the rest of the family. When Gregor arrived mother had already been buried next to the small sept of the village. It was hard to tell if Gregor was sad. He never said much, was always in a terrible mood and acted as if he was too good for the simple keep and his family. 

Mother was missed everywhere. Mother had looked after everyone because she was mother and that was what she used to do. After her death father had retreated into his solar, unable to run his household or control his children and servants. All he wanted was not to be disturbed. The maester took charge and Amy tried to help him as best as she could. But she was not mother, she was only ten. Of course Gregor did not listen to Amy or the maester. Mother had been the only one able to control Gregor and his temper somewhat. There was no one here able to control him now. And Gregor had changed during his time at Casterly Rock. He had never been a particularly good brother. Now Gregor had mutated into a hellish nightmare of a sibling. He had learned to punch harder and more precisely. He had been trained to unleash his fury in a methodical and implacable manner. It never ended well for the other party involved. 

When Gregor left for Casterly Rock again after a couple of weeks, the whole keep breathed a deep sigh of relief. They were left to assess the damage Gregors visit had caused. It had not only been a big part of the left half of Sandors face and his left ear. Gregors visit had also cost them countless pieces of furniture and five dogs. 

Sandor had been in bed a good part of the remaining time Gregor spent at home, his head heavily bandaged with funny smelling linen, imagining all the time how one day he would pay back Gregor in kind. One day he would take everything Gregor owned and nobody would be there to stop him. Sandor would be just as strong and mean as Gregor and then it would be Gregor who cried and begged Sandor to stop! 

Amy stubbornly tried to rub his face with the ointments the maester had given them for his burns because Sandor himself refused to touch the ruined skin, nor would he allow anybody else to touch his burns. As soon as he was able to get up he ran and hid whenever he could hear the faint “chink” of the small glass jar. It made no difference that Amy kept telling him that it needed to be done and that mother would have insisted on doing what she did. And after a while she got tired of chasing him through the keep and gave up. 

It was also Amy who accused Gregor of burning his little brother deliberately one evening when father had come to the hall. That was when father had hit her hard across the cheek for the first and only time. 

“Nothing like that happened! Is that clear? Nothing like that happened! You were not there! You did not see it! No more of this! Do you hear me? You will never say a word of it again!”

While father was shouting at Amy, Gregor had been standing in the door, smirking smugly and a little menacing. That was when Sandor knew he could not expect help from father. He realized that father must be as afraid of Gregor as he was. 

Afterwards father told everybody that Sandor was clumsy and had accidentally thrown over the candle that burned at his bedside during nighttimes because he frightened easily in the dark. As if! He was seven, he did not get scared at night! The only thing he was scared of was Gregor. And fire, he never wanted to go near a fire ever again. 

But now Gregor was off to Casterly Rock. Hopefully he would stay there for a very long time. Sandor stood with father and Amy at the gates of the keep, watching Gregor and his companions become smaller and smaller. When Gregor was out of sight father looked down and patted Sandors shoulder in a rare gesture of affection. 

“Well lad, it is time you learned to defend yourself properly. We will find you a helmet, a breastplate and a training sword and then we will get started. ”

Sandor knew it was fathers way of apologizing as well as admitting defeat.


	2. Chapter 2

“Sandor!” 

Amy had been shouting on top of her lungs for quite some time now. He heard her well. He was with the dogs. He did not want to come out. Whatever she had to tell him, it could wait until the evening. 

“Sandor!”

Suddenly the door opened. Sandor flinched at the bright light.

“There you are! Why are you always hiding?”

What a stupid question to ask! Because he did not want to be seen, obviously. And his own sister of all people should know why. He did not want people to look at him. He hated it when he saw their eyes widen in shock first and then narrowing in disgust. Sometimes when he had passed them, he glanced backwards and saw them looking at each other, nodding in an somber way. When that happened he would have liked nothing better than to throw himself at them snarling and with bared teeth, like a dog.

“What is it?”

They talked in blunt, short sentences. Clegane Keep was not a place for eloquence.

“There was a raven, from Casterly Rock. It said that Gregor will come home for a while.”

The shock took the air from his lungs and the strength from his legs. He slumped onto the next straw pallet. Almost two years had passed since Gregor had been home for the last time. Sandor would bear the reminder of that visit forever on his face. His throat was dry, he felt like crying but he couldn’t. Gregor would come home and there was no one who would help them. Gregor was a nightmare from which he couldn’t wake up, no matter how hard he tried. He looked at Amy and he saw her eyes sparkling with undisguised pugnacity.

“He will not get away with things this time!”

Sandor looked at his sister, appalled.

“Amy, stay away from Gregor! He is dangerous! Please!”

His voice was hoarse from disuse and from the damage the smoldering coals had done. Sandor knew his stubborn sister. If she had decided to put up a fight then she would. But she surely was smart enough to know that it was deadly to oppose Gregor, wasn’t she? Surely she knew that their best option was to hide and stay hidden until their brother had left for Casterly Rock again?

When they sat down for their evening meal with the maester, it became evident that this was one of the rare occasions father decided to join them. Since mothers death he had neglected his children, his keep and his lands while brooding in his solar, drinking. He had let his children run free and let them become unruly and wild, almost like animals. Clegane Keep and its lands had become derelict and unorganized because father was too absorbed with himself and his drinking to really care for the things that would have been his responsibility. Father let the maester decide what was to be done. And the maester was a lazy and careless man who often decided that there was nothing that needed to be done except visiting the grimy local inn and its cheap wine and even cheaper whores. Of course Sandor and Amy did not feel the need to show up to their lessons and the maester did not bother to insist they did. In two years Clegane Keep had become a sad and messy place. 

Father confirmed Amys news of Gregors imminent arrival. When Amy asked why he would return here, when he never even bothered to write or answer any of the letters father or the maester sent from time to time, father cut her short. Gregor would return home for a while because Tywin Lannister had decided he should spend some time with his family. They were not to question Lord Tywins decisions. And now they should eat and not bother him any further. Both Amy and Sandor knew this was the best explanation they would get. And they knew better than to harass father with further questions. Father was not a violent man. But his temper was prone to flare if they kept on nagging him about things he’d rather not speak of.

Two days later, Amy sought him out in the stables. Sandor was wondering whether he should set up camp in the stables or in the kennels during Gregors visit. He had even thought of the cellar but decided against it because he would be truly trapped if his brother ever decided to go there. 

“I stole the letter!”

Amys grey eyes sparkled with mischief as she unrolled the parchment. Then she began to read and while she did, her expression changed from curious to furious.

“… Gregor will stay at Clegane Keep until the disturbance his trespassing of our rules caused, has calmed down. The family of the so unfortunately deceased squire will receive a substantial sum to compensate for their loss. Should you not be able to come forth with the requested sum, Lord Tywin Lannister will grant you another loan. The terms of repayment will be negotiated when Gregor returns to Casterly Rock, which will be two moons after his arrival at Clegane Keep…”

Amy and Sandor looked at each other, shocked. So Lord Tywin had not sent Gregor home out of the goodness of his heart. Gregor was sent home because he had killed another squire and Lord Tywin wanted people to forget about the incident and calm down. This visit did not bode well. But why did Gregor always get away with things? Surely the mighty Lord Tywin Lannister was not afraid of the unruly spawn of one of his lowly lieges? Why was Gregor never punished the way he should be? And if the Warden of the West, Lord Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock himself would or could not punish Gregor, nobody ever would, that much was clear to Sandor now. For the first time in his life he considered running away and living in the woods as long as Gregor would stay. But he could not leave Amy here unprotected. For he had seen the stubborn angry look in her eyes the very instant she read that letter. Amy was not like him. She would not hide. Amy was determined to make Gregors life as miserable as she could. He knew it. He must stay and protect her. 

Three weeks into Gregors visit "the unfortunate incident", as it would be called in the future, happened. Sandor was making himself useful in the kennels. Suddenly there was shouting and shrieking and then the telltale thumping noise of something heavy falling down the stairs of the tower. When Sandor emerged from the kennels he saw something green and crumpled lying at the bottom of the stairs. Sandor and the kennelmaster ran over. And while Sandor was hoping against all odds that it was really just a crumpled piece of cloth lying motionless on the ground, he knew that cloth did not shriek and make so much noise when falling down somewhere. When they turned Amy on her back her head was moving too loosely on her neck and her eyes stared blankly into the sky. Sandor looked up just in time to see Gregor emerge from the door the stairs led to. Everyone had gathered around Amys body, helplessly shouting, swearing and crying, trying to make sense of the unfathomable. All the while Gregor was standing in the shadow of the house, waiting and glaring ominously at anyone who dared looking in his direction. As if daring them to speak up and accuse him of pushing his sister down the stairs. No one did. Nobody knew what exactly had caused Amys fall. But from this day on everyone gave Gregor an even wider berth than before. 

The day they laid Amy to rest next to mother, Sandor ran away into the woods. He vowed to himself that he would never again stay in the same place as his brother. After the two moons had passed Gregor left and Sandor emerged from the thickets. He did not look at his father who stood there, spreading his arms in a helpless gesture of surrender. He did not look at the maester. He did not look at the kennelmaster who had come looking for Sandor in the woods, bringing him food and news. He went straight to the armory. He started to hack the training doll into shreds with his sword, hoping it would ease the boiling hatred he felt for everyone and everything and most of all for himself. Amy was gone. He had failed her. He was on his own now. He needed to become big and mean and fast. Because if one day he really wanted to hack Gregor into tiny bits, he had better start working on his swordsmanship.


	3. Chapter 3

He lay in the dark. The wind was rustling in the leaves. It was not cold but he was glad he had thought of taking his good brown cloak with him amidst all the frantic running and shouting. He listened to the sounds of the night: The faint rustling of small animals in the thicket, the occasional cry of a fox or its prey, the hooting of owls. No horses and no men who were shouting, no hunting dogs sniffing for his trace. It was a good sign. 

His absence had not gone unnoticed, he was sure. He had missed his own fathers burial after all. But so far no one had come looking for him. He had been on the run for a couple of days. He hadn’t packed anything except for his warm cloak and his dagger, living of berries and herbs and once he even had managed to catch a fish in a little river. He hoped desperately Lannisport was not far away anymore for he felt his stomach clenching painfully at the thought of food. 

The moment Gregor had returned from that hunting trip, leading fathers horse riderless behind him, Sandor knew something bad had happened. He waited long enough to see eight men carrying a improvised bier emerging through the gates, their faces somber and their shoulders bowed. On the bier lay his father, white and motionless, a gaping red whole where his belly should have been. „A boar“ , he heard someone whisper. Or something else, rather someone else, was all he could think. Sandor took one look at the looming, gigantic mass that was his brother who was shouting orders in the yard and he knew that if he did not leave at once, he was the next in line whose death would be an unfortunate accident. Accidents that always happened with Gregor near but no other witnesses around to tell a different tale than his brother. But Gregor would not have him. Sandor intended it to be the other way round. So he slipped into the shadows. He stayed hidden until he was sure there was no one looking for him and ran out of the gates at the first opportunity that presented itself which had been the maester returning from the village with the septon.   
He knew he had a night in advance at least. Gregor would have to discuss fathers burial with the septon and the maester and then mull over everything else that needed to be organized, now that father was out of the way and he was master of Clegane Keep and its lands. Since Gregor had come home a knight, he and father had fought over the place and its derelict state and dire financial situation almost daily. 

Gregor would not start looking for him before the day after, Sandor knew. This would probably be the day Gregor laid father to rest. He knew that Gregor did not care about the wellbeing or the whereabouts of his younger brother any more than he did about the chickens in the yard. But the presence of both remaining sons of the deceased Hugo Clegane was required for a burial worthy of a noble. Although Gregor disposed of inconvenient people in a careless and gruesome manner, be they family members or his own men, oddly enough he cared fastidiously about the propriety of things. As if a respectable front made him and his deeds less dreadful.

When Sandor could not be presented at his fathers funeral, he was sure someone was going to pay for it. And if Gregor found him, his flight would have been for naught and he would join mother, father and Amy in their secluded corner of the small graveyard next to the village sept. But the days and the nights came and went and there were no signs of men searching for him. Which meant Gregor had chosen not to look for him or he had already run far enough. 

But where could he go to be safe from Gregor? He knew no one from the other landed knights or petty nobles near Clegane Keep. They tended to stay away because Clegane Keep was not a place to go even for a formal call. And he could not go their neighbours anyway because they were probably the first places Gregor and his men would start looking for him. He knew that father had no living relatives left. He had no idea where the family of his mother had lived or if he even had other relatives apart from Gregor. Father had never mentioned any uncles, aunts or cousins. He was truly and utterly alone. When that thought hit him, the first night after his escape, huddling under the hollow of the roots of a fallen tree, he had to fight back the violent urge to run back home. But Clegane Keep was not his home any longer. It belonged to his brother now. And where Gregors home was, Sandor‘s could never be. 

He had run from Clegane Keep without a plan but sleep was scarce and during the nights he had plenty of time to work something out. It was only logical that he should go to someone who was powerful enough to reject Gregor, should he come and demand that his younger brother return home. It had to be someone Gregor respected, even might fear, someone Gregor was pledged to obey. Someone who would not be intimidated by Gregor looming threateningly and oozing violence through every pore. It had to be someone who lived near enough that Sandor could get there without risking to succumb to starvation or some other deadly hazard long travels often involved. It had to be someone wealthy enough being able to accomodate, feed and clothe an additional, constantly hungry and growing boy of ten. Sandor knew of only one man who fit this description. And he knew he would do anything Lord Tywin Lannister asked of him, if only he allowed him to stay at Casterly Rock.

**Author's Note:**

> In my headcanon the Clegane women look somewhat like Mayim Bialik. That's why I named the sister Amy, after the feisty Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler. And because I like the name and think it fits well into ASOIAF of course.


End file.
